The present invention relates to the manufacture of glass articles and in particular, to the feeding of glass batch materials to a pool of molten glass in a glass furnace.
In the production of glass articles, such as glass bottles for example, a pool of molten glass is formed in a glass furnace, with the melt being drawn-off to appropriate molds or the like in which the articles are formed. The melt is periodically replenished by the addition of batch material in grannular form. The batch material is deposited directly onto the pool of molten material as from a hopper, for example.
The batch material is composed of fine particulate matter, which tends to sit on the surface of the pool of molten glass. It is important that the dispensed batch material be quickly incorporated into the melt, lest it be carried from the furnace along with the products of combustion.
Proposals have heretofore been made for effecting such incorporation as demonstrated, for example, by the disclosures in U.S. Pat. No. 1,905,534 issued to Wadman on Apr. 25, 1933; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,666 issued to Baque on June 12, 1956.
In one proposal, a batch feeding passage is formed in a wall of the furnace, with an outlet thereof disposed below the surface of the melt. A pusher bar reciprocates within the passage to displace batch material into the melt.
In another proposal a batch discharge hopper is secured to an upper wall of the furnace so as to overlie A "doghouse" portion of the furnace. A plunger is pivotably mounted to a side wall of the furnace for reciprocable movement in a curvalinear path past the outlet of the hopper, to push deposited batch material into the melt. The furnace wall to which hopper is mounted includes a passage within which the plunger travels. The batch material submerged by the plunger is caused to travel beneath that wall before rising to the melt surface. A floor-mounted motor is operably connected to the plunger to reciprocate the latter. The wall and plunger may contain internal channels for circulating cooling water.
Previous proposals may not function as effectively as desired and may require that considerable modifications be made to the furnace.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an improved apparatus for dispensing and submersing batch materials within a furnace.
It is another object of the invention to provide an effective mechanism which dispenses and submerges batch material and is easily adaptable to existing furnaces.